Author's Note: This is an unsanctioned reply to Fandomonium's
Voyeur Challenge. I am not a member, but the need to write to
forget about the steaming heat and humidity here is just so
strong. A challenge was what I needed. I'm thinking of joining, but
it may be too late. This is a revision, and it's now 2016. I doubt
they're active now.

Mothers just seem to know things about their children. We tend
to see things no one else can see. Whether you call it instinct,
our 'Gift from God', or 'Mommy Radar', we can spot things about
them, sense their emotions and feel their joy and pain when
they're around us.

When we meet someone new in their lives, we not only sense their
feelings toward these people, but also how these people are
affected by our children.

I hadn't figured my radar was that refined until the time after
Dana Katherine was partnered at the FBI with Fox Mulder. Bells
were ringing double time, and sometimes even in tandem. I sensed
something they wouldn't quite get until much later. It seemed as
though however divergent their professional opinions were on
their first cases together, they had a certain quiet, understood
contract that neither were aware of.

There was a lighter step in Dana's gait when she heard his name,
and a quick change of expression as if closing a diary that
contained comments she didn't want me, or him, to read.

As for Fox, I know he was quite comfortable with my daughter
at times, and sometimes seemed quite nervous if he caught her
out of the corner of his eye as she glanced fleetingly, then
turned. I swear there was a sparkle in his eyes just before he
began to stutter or fumble with a glass or his collar.

When Dana went missing for several months, he helped me pick
out a tombstone for her. Something inside me said she wasn't
dead, but I thought that was just wishful thinking. The sorrow
in that man's eyes could have reduced a whole theatre of
hardened old sailors to tears, had it been part of a movie. He
told me not to give up hope. They hadn't found her dead yet.

I knew what I had to do, and there was no other choice: I placed
her gold cross in his hand and told him to give it to her when
he found her.

The day came when my Dana was left at the door of a hospital
in Washington. Fox Mulder shot through the hallway outside
her room as I sat with her. She was barely alive; he was going
for bear. When I heard the shouting, I realized he hadn't
found my daughter, and that there had to be more to her arrival
than even he knew. The anger and the passion in his voice was so
similar to the way she reacted when speaking out for something
or someone she so deeply cared about. Did he realize just how
similar they were in their devoted single-mindedness?

When Dr. Daly told us all the time was coming to take Dana off
of life support, he wouldn't let us, or the doctor, dare do it.
We did. But Dana didn't die. Her partner sat beside her the
night she was near death, and went home in the early morning. He
must have believed more than we could that her life would go on
here for many more years. Maybe she was holding on to him in
some way, gaining strength from him. Maybe he told her he
wanted her to stay. All I know is this: My daughter awoke from
a near-death coma the next morning, opening her eyes and
blinking.

How Fox's eyes sparkled when he entered that hospital room! And
I saw a twinkle of happy recognition in her eyes! I figured
them then and there for soul mates. Acting aloof, he handed
her the cross he had been holding for her. She admitted to him
that she had the strength of his beliefs. A faithful man? A
religious man? Wasn't it just possible she felt his pull? His
love?

When cancer clawed at my daughter, and chemotherapy ravaged her
immune system, Fox felt her pain and she felt she had let him
down in some way. I could see it in her eyes when she spoke with
him, once again in the sterile confines of a hospital room. He
didn't feel that she had. He stayed beside us through this fight,
despite her brother Bill's acute dislike of his sister's FBI
partner.

The strange treatment Fox suggested for Dana's cancer was met
with derision, and ultimate wonder and surprise. He had risked
his life and career to make her whole. Whoever created such
madness, such misuse of science. would meet his wrath. Never
have I seen a colleague in any other workplace go so far for
a fellow worker. There was a closeness, a strong trust that
nothing could break.

When my daughter discovered that someone had cloned an ovum and
that she had a child, Fox Mulder was the first advocate for her
and Emily. I suspect he wept just as bitterly over Emily's death
as my Dana did. No one could have kept him from her side for the
grieving she was to go through, and the burial. The beautiful
flower arrangement he bought for the funeral was by far the most
moving gesture I had seen from any of her previous male friends.

I even believe it possible that he gave her a son when it was
thought an impossibility. I have no doubt than some day, he
will be in the care of his true parents, and that I will once
again see my grandson, William. After Fox's late father.

Last week, I heard a report on Fox News. Two FBI Agents, a male
and a female, were believed dead after the female aided in his
escape from a military prison in New Mexico. He had been
sentenced to death after a military court convicted him of some
sort of treason. I have no doubt that these two people, who I
know as my daughter Dana, and her partner Fox, are keeping each
other alive.

If anyone can get Fox through this time, it's Dana. Some prayer
from me helps, I have no doubt of that. If anyone can help her
come through and live to fight whatever they believe is to come,
it has to be him, because I believe in the man.

END

Disclaimer: Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen Productions and Fox Studios own
the copyrights to The X-Files and every character in the Mulder and Scully families, their co-workers, enemies, poker
buddies and former lovers (except any I choose to make up). Not a cent comes to me for writing fanfiction, and I intend
no copyright infringement.